I wish to follow up on the comments made by my colleague from Louisiana, Senator Vitter. I am pleased he will accompany many of our elected officials to the FEMA office this afternoon. I had a chance to meet with the FEMA officials…

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. ______ EXECUTIVE SESSION ______ NOMINATION OF SHELLY DECKERT DICK TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR…

If there is objection, I can talk about the amendment now. I will talk about the amendment now and then attempt to call up the amendment later in the day. I thank the Chair. Mr. President, the amendment I am trying to get pending for the…

I ask unanimous consent to call up as pending amendment No. 802. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?

I wish to speak for a few minutes in morning business to thank the leader for the remarks he has made and thank him and his staff for working with us throughout today, this afternoon, to try to mitigate against some of the difficulties…

Thank you Chairman Sanders and Ranking Member Burr for affording me the opportunity to speak in support of S. 412, the 'Keep Our Commitment to Veterans Act.'

This is an opportunity to make it clear that this Congress recognizes the importance of properly authorizing and appropriating funds in order to provide our veterans receive the care that they deserve.

It is an opportunity for us to make clear to our veterans that the promises we made to them we want to hold to those promises.

This scoring system will have widespread implications for veterans nationwide, pulling the rug out from under our Nation's vets.

I wanted to bring to both of your attention a bill that I have filed, S. 412, and I am happy that Senator Blumenthal, Senator Isakson, and Senator Hirono have joined me at cosponsoring this important legislation.

We need to fix this situation. As an appropriator I most certainly understand the challenges in our budget.

would the Senator yield for a question? Is a question in order?

No. I am asking a question. Mr. McCONNELL. Or are we considering objecting to a consent request? The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the request? Mr. McCONNELL. Reserving the right to object, I would ask consent that the Senator…

One more question: Are not there Republicans represented on that committee? In fact, would the Republicans have the majority representation from the House?

Reserving the right to object--which I am not going to do, but I just want to clarify the Senator's motion--the Senator is simply asking us to move the budget which she passed after a heroic effort on the part of many to pass a budget so…

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988, a landmark piece of legislation that laid the foundation for increased Federal support of one of the largest and most important segments…

Today's hearing will focus specifically on identifying what Federal, State, local, private, and nonprofit solutions work best to strengthen women business ownership opportunities for minority women.

can I be heard for 3 minutes on this subject? The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

this is very disturbing that the minority leader has objected to taking the budget to conference because the only way to get a compromise on the budget is to take it to conference, as the chair of the Budget Committee has asked us to do…

the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship will meet on May 8, 2013, at 10 am in room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office building to hold a hearing entitled ``Strengthening the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for Minority Women.''…

Can you explain the Administration's rationale for targeting this older adult employment program that the GAO noted 'has done a reasonably good job at accomplishing its goals'?

I think all of us spend a fair amount of time on airplanes, and I will tell you I have been buttonholed by no fewer than dozens and dozens of flight attendants who are saying, 'What is going on?'

I want to tell the members of our subcommittee to think about the possibility of building an icebreaker.

In my view, it does not make our country stronger. It puts us in an untenable position, so new resources are going to have to be found from somewhere.

Within 2 weeks, I would like a white paper from your Department describing the impacts this investment plan will have on Coast Guard missions offshore.